


Free

by panda_desu



Series: Dreams of Emerald Chambers [15]
Category: Japanese Actor RPF, Tenimyu RPF
Genre: M/M, arabian night AU, harem au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 22:24:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1704743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panda_desu/pseuds/panda_desu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a sweet dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free

**Author's Note:**

> Another background story for the harems! I hope you can enjoy this one~

The falcon comes swooping in along with the whistle Tatsunari is making. Mario holds his leather gloved hand high for the bird to land and perch on. The boy looks very excited when the falcon pecks on the glove and snaps at the small bite of rabbit meat he offers to it. He strokes at the feathers as the bird eats. Tatsunari comes up to him and smiles.

 

“She’s very handsome, isn’t she?”

 

Mario nods, offering another bite of meat to the bird. He then signs to Tatsunari, telling him that he’s very good with the falcon. Tatsunari shrugs, “I used to handle their kind. Back then.”

 

Mario tilts his head but nod again. He lets Tatsunari takes over the falcon from his hand and returns it to its huge cage. Mario walks over to another cage, this one full of sparrows in various rich colors. He whistles and a couple of birds tweet back beautifully. Mario smiles as he continues to whistle. His attention is soon distracted by a dove flying in to one of the small cages arranged on a tree. Another one coming in and Mario approach them. He baits one to come down to his hand and caresses its feather lovingly. He doesn’t even aware when Tatsunari telling him that he’s leaving.

 

He loves birds. He always has. There’s something about the way they fly that fascinates Mario. He secretly wishes he can fly, too; to see how the world looks like from up above, to become one with wind and moves as gracefully, to be feel free. Mario knows how it’s like to live a caged life.

 

He was born in a family of six and his parents were too poor to support them. He was sent to a temple when he was six. Every brother in that temple took a silent vow. They do not speak and are not allowed to go outside the temple ground. They keep ravens and doves for their communication with the outside world. Mario was raised under the supervision of the brother who was in charge of those birds. Mario dutifully did everything he was told to but he never really like the live in the temple. He became very attached to the birds and spent his days taking care of them and read about them at the temple’s library. Once or twice he talked to the birds but that stopped after a brother caught him and he had to receive ten lashes for violating his vow. Mario thought it as no big deal since he didn’t need his words to communicate with the birds but he swore he would never speak for his entire life even if he managed to get to the rank which he was allowed to speak. If spoken words are considered dangerous and could lead to any misunderstanding and sin, he might as well not do it.

 

He began to write verses from poems or books he found interesting on little piece of parchment and attached it to one of the birds’ legs. He sent them to fly and wait for them to come back. They usually came back with the parchment gone. Maybe someone took it or it got stuck to a branch, Mario never knew. But if someone took it, he wished that that someone found the words he wrote were beautiful, too. Until one day, a raven came back with the parchment still attached on its leg. A little bit sad, Mario took it but then he realized that it was a different parchment with a continuation of the verse he’d written. It was a very elegant hand. He felt absurdly happy and excited and he read that verse again and again and again even though he knew them.

 

He tried again the next day, sending the same raven with another verse. It came back with another verse. Same hand. The day after that, he sent a dove. It came back empty legged. He tried with the same raven and it came back with a reply again. From then on, he kept using that raven to send verses and poems. It always came back with a reply. There were days when he couldn’t send the raven; when he was sick or when the weather was too bad for the bird to fly but Mario made sure to send it flying as much as possible. He lived his days with a more elevated spirit. He was talking to someone out there and not violating any vow to the brotherhood or to himself. For the first time, he felt strangely free.

 

Almost a year and a half since the first day he received the first reply, the raven came back not with another verse but a message.

 

_Would you like to have your own birds?_

He didn’t reply for days, thinking about that message for very long. Two weeks later, he wrote:

 

_It is a sweet dream._

No more messages. No more replied verses. Mario felt disappointed, thinking that maybe he’d given a wrong answer. Although he was still not sure why the owner of that elegant hand asked him such question and how did he know the raven was not Mario’s own.

 

The temple received a visit from the crown prince a couple of months after that. Mario only saw the entourage coming in when he was cleaning the front yard. He didn’t pay much attention to them. After all, the Wise Ones would receive the prince because they are the ones allowed to talk. After lunch, he was summoned to the small hall. No one is there but a tall young man standing in the middle of the hall. He wore the most beautiful clothes Mario ever saw – Mario imagined that must be the color of a singing bird he once read about in a scroll. He introduced himself as Seiyadina and asked Mario to show him the birds he was taking care of. He was very tall Mario was afraid he’d get a strain on his neck just so he could look at his face. Rather than the singing bird, Mario thought of him as that long legged bird which eats fish and has pink color on its feathers.

 

The young man asked for a parchment and ink and he began to write. Mario’s eyes widen in shock.

 

Mario never consider his life as one of Seiyadina’s harems as another caged life. True that he’s not allowed going out unless to accompany the prince but other than that, he’s free to do and think as much as he likes. And people actually talk to him. Everyone thinks of him as a mute but Mario doesn’t want to correct them. He’s inclined to keep his vow and finds it even more useful in the middle of palace life where even the softest whisper can be taken in a wrong way. And he has his own birds to take care of. More birds, in fact. Not just ravens and doves but they are still his favorites. Although he has to battle Tatsunari in handling the falcon when the two of them are included in Seiyadina’s hunting party, but Mario finds it very amusing and fun to pull that fighting cock’s legs. He likes running around with Yuuki the raven, annoying the pretty peacock Ikkei, or late night gossip with the woodpecker Masyu, but he likes hanging around with Yusuke the sparrow the most because he’s very nice and he takes care of everyone. He also has a strange fondness of the lark tattoo brandished on his left ankle.

 

And the old habit doesn’t die down. On certain days, he sends a bird to Seiyadina’s study with a verse attached to the bird’s leg and it comes back to him with another verse. Maybe other people may find it absurd but he cannot think of another life that he would enjoy and love the most as the one he’s living now.

 

“I got your message,” a voice comes from behind him as a dove lands on his shoulder.

 

Mario turns and he sees Prince Seiya approaching him, smiling in amusement. Mario beckons him to come closer to the dove cages.

 

“What did you want me to see?” The prince asks.

 

Mario points to one of the cages. Prince Seiya cranes his neck a bit and smiles, too. “Ah, little doves are coming soon. How lovely.” Mario nods in enthusiasm and laughs silently when Prince Seiya drops a small kiss on his head. “Good job, Mario.”

 


End file.
